In the mega-diverse insect order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths; 165,000 described species), deeper relationships are little understood within the clade Ditrysia, to which 98% of the species belong...

RNA interference in Lepidoptera: an overview of successful and unsuccessful studies and implications for experimental design

Venu M MargamDepartment of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of AmericaPLoS ONE 6:e16444. 2011

..14,054 bp near complete sequencing of the mitochondrial genome of the legume pod borer (LPB), Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), which we subsequently used to estimate divergence and relationships within the lepidopteran ..

Census of the bacterial community of the gypsy moth larval midgut by using culturing and culture-independent methods

..Here we report genetic mapping of a membrane transporter (ABCC2) to a locus controlling Bt Cry1Ac toxin resistance in two lepidopterans, implying that this protein plays a critical role in Bt function...

..The discovery of a toxin-induced cell death pathway specifically linked to BT-R(1) in insect cells should provide insights into how insects evolve resistance to Bt and into the development of new, safer insecticides...

..Here we show that cytochrome c oxidase I DNA barcodes effectively discriminate among species in three Lepidoptera families from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica. We found that 97...

Renewable and nonrenewable resources: amino acid turnover and allocation to reproduction in Lepidoptera

We characterized evolutionary patterns of host plant use across about 2500 species of British Lepidoptera, using character optimization and independent phylogenetic contrasts among 95 operational taxa, and evaluated the extent to which ..

Transcriptome sequencing, and rapid development and application of SNP markers for the legume pod borer Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Venu M MargamDepartment of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of AmericaPLoS ONE 6:e21388. 2011

The legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is an insect pest species of crops grown by subsistence farmers in tropical regions of Africa...

..armigera has been doubted, due to its wide distribution and plant host range across the Old World. This study explores the global genetic diversity of H. armigera and its evolutionary relationship to H zea...

Immunity or digestion: glucanase activity in a glucan-binding protein family from Lepidoptera

..This review illustrates the biochemical, physiological, and ecological characteristics of phytochemical-based defense systems that can shed light on the evolution of the widely developed sequestering lifestyles among the Lepidoptera.

The complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of Cnaphalocrocis medinalis and Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) were determined and analyzed. The circular genomes were 15,388 bp long for C. medinalis and 15,395 bp long for C...

Galleria mellonella as a model host to study infection by the Francisella tularensis live vaccine strain

We used the killing of Galleria mellonella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae; the greater wax moth) caterpillar by the live vaccine strain (LVS) of Francisella tularensis to develop an invertebrate host system that can be used to study F...

..These results indicated that control failures were associated with resistance by some of the evaluated insecticides, reinforcing the need for resistance management in areas of the state of Pernambuco...

Oral Candida albicans isolates from HIV-positive individuals have similar in vitro biofilm-forming ability and pathogenicity as invasive Candida isolates

In this paper, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Kallima inachus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae), which is considered a rare species in China. The genome is 15,183 bp in size...

The complete mitochondrial genomes of two ghost moths, Thitarodes renzhiensis and Thitarodes yunnanensis: the ancestral gene arrangement in Lepidoptera

..Resistance to Cry1Ac was probably due to a single but unstable factor suggesting that crop rotation with non-Bt cotton or other crops could reduce the selection pressure for H. armigera and improve the sustainability of Bt cotton...

Three cadherin alleles associated with resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in pink bollworm

..This first study to measure effects of belowground herbivory on aboveground tritrophic signalling and vice-versa reemphasizes the important role of plants in bridging interactions between spatially distinct components of the ecosystem...

Complete nucleotide sequence and organization of the mitogenome of the red-spotted apollo butterfly, Parnassius bremeri (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and comparison with other lepidopteran insects

The 15,389-bp long complete mitogenome of the endangered red-spotted apollo butterfly, Parnassius bremeri (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) was determined in this study...

Repetitive genome elements in a European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, bacterial artificial chromosome library were indicated by bacterial artificial chromosome end sequencing and development of sequence tag site markers: implications for lepidopteran g

..of these compounds and to a large extent they account for the great diversity of pheromone structures in Lepidoptera. A novel desaturase gene subfamily that displays Delta11 catalytic activities has been highlighted to account ..

A maize (E)-beta-caryophyllene synthase implicated in indirect defense responses against herbivores is not expressed in most American maize varieties

..We argue that the (E)-beta-caryophyllene defense signal was lost during breeding of the North American lines and that its restoration might help to increase the resistance of these lines against agronomically important pests...

The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of Phthonandria atrilineata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

Ling YangSchool of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, People s Republic of ChinaMol Biol Rep 36:1441-9. 2009

..The phylogenetic relationships were reconstructed with the concatenated sequences of the 13 PCGs of the mitochondrial genome, which confirmed that P. atrilineata is most closely related to the superfamily Bombycoidea...

A helitron-like transposon superfamily from lepidoptera disrupts (GAAA)(n) microsatellites and is responsible for flanking sequence similarity within a microsatellite family

..BIAcore analysis of HaAPN1/Cry1Ac interaction further established HaAPN1 as a ligand for Cry1Ac. This is the first functional demonstration of insect aminopeptidase-N of H. armigera being a receptor of Cry1Ac protein of B. thuringiensis...

..Cfserpin-1a could bind with the serine proteinase elastase and form a complex in vitro. We hypothesize that the cloned serpins could be involved in the regulation of cuticle degradation during the insect molting cycle...

Molecular identification and characterization of two new Lepidoptera chemoreceptors belonging to the Drosophila melanogaster OR83b family

..transmembrane domains and an unusual topology with intracellular N-termini and extracellular C-termini, extending to Lepidoptera the hypothesis of an inverted topology for DOR83b orthologues, demonstrated to date only in D. melanogaster.

Phylogeny of the mega-diverse Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera): adaptations and determinants of success

..However, the previously identified senecionine N-oxygenase of the arctiid moth Tyria jacobaeae (Lepidoptera) indicates that FMOs have been recruited during the adaptation of this insect to plants that accumulate toxic ..

Baculovirus per os infectivity factors form a complex on the surface of occlusion-derived virus

..SFI1/GNA and similar fusion proteins offer a novel and effective approach for delivering haemolymph active toxins by oral administration, which could be used in crop protection by expression in transgenic plants...

Population genetics of ecological communities with DNA barcodes: an example from New Guinea Lepidoptera

..Contradictory estimates of host specificity and beta diversity in tropical Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) from New Guinea and the Americas have sparked debate on the role of host-associated ..

Purification and characterization of an N-acetylglucosamine-binding lectin from Koelreuteria paniculata seeds and its effect on the larval development of Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) and Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

..65% KpLec produced an LD(50), whereas 0.2% KpLec produced an ED(50). The transformation of genes coding for this lectin could be useful in the development of insect resistance in important agricultural crops...

..These results demonstrate that expression of TIC107 in soybean can not only achieve highly efficacious control of several lepidopterans under field conditions but also provide a high dose for effective insect resistance management...

Salivary glucose oxidase from caterpillars mediates the induction of rapid and delayed-induced defenses in the tomato plant

..Examination of saliva from other caterpillar species indicates that saliva from the noctuids Spodoptera exigua and Heliothis virescens also induced Pin2 transcripts...

Molecular phylogeny of the small ermine moth genus Yponomeuta (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae) in the palaearctic

Hubert TurnerEvolutionary Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPLoS ONE 5:e9933. 2010

The small ermine moth genus Yponomeuta (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae) contains 76 species that are specialist feeders on hosts from Celastraceae, Rosaceae, Salicaceae, and several other plant families...

..this FIRCA proposal is to determine whether the new technique of double stranded RNA interference will work in Lepidoptera to provide us with a means of studying the effects of loss-of-function of these various factors to ascertain ..

..In addition, by increasing our understanding of the population diversity and evolutionary history of human immune system genes, this research will enhance our knowledge of human immune function in health and disease. ..

..The enhanced BEVS technology to be developed with this award has potential to significantly improve efficacy of protein production in all such medical applications. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]..

..Insects are major vectors of disease. An understanding of how insects depend on natural products for regulation of their biotic interactions is of broad applied significance to both medicine and agriculture. [unreadable] [unreadable]..

..gambiae serpins and laccases. This project will be a start toward development of a new research area for the PI (mosquito biochemistry) that will build from his experience in biochemistry of other groups of insects. ..

..Aegypti. To test the hypothesis, the applicant proposes to clone the receptor gene, localize the tissue expression by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry and express the protein in transformed cells. ..

..This scan, if successful, would provide functional annotation for the endogenous function of previously characterized small molecules. Finally, some polypeptides with antibiotic activity will be investigated. ..

..nematophila during colonization, further define a colonization-specific regulon, and expand our knowledge of the role of a ubiquitous transcription factor in the natural ecology of a bacterium. [unreadable] [unreadable]..

..Identification of cellular factors involved in parasitic invasion and transmission at the host cell erythrocyte is critical for understanding parasitic pathogenesis and should aid in the development of effective chemotherapeutics. ..